Wednesday, September 1, 2010

the heronry.May 2010

latest nile birds are on http://birdinginegypt.blogspot.com/
Another wonderful half day on Banana Island heronry, so many fledglings trying their wings today also many few day old chicks one of the trees with the nests at eye level the tree is growing from the base of the Nile river bank so I am standing twenty foot up to tree level. so a few of the baby chicks are only maybe 15ft away from the camera, no need for any more commentary just enjoy the young Little white Egrets and the Cattle egrets chicks. click on the photos to enlarge,

'.the heronry one week before 22/4/10
As promised I went to the heronry today and it was a nice day out real nice breeze too cool things down.
I sat down near my usual spot to watch the kingfishers a bit too windy for them all they did was perch and have squabbles with the offspring i suppose the young did not understand why there was no fish today. and I shall explain for what I think. The Nile was a bit choppy and the mud was being churned up making the waters murky the Kingfishers hover at about 20ft above the water and dive as soon as a fish comes to surface for air. so the kingfisher has to watch it come up. then dive hitting the water at the same time the fish takes air. now the herons have no such problems. most times they wade in the water or perch on flotsam. and wait for a fish to come in striking range like today this Little white egret dived from a perch and caught its prey.

seeing there are a lot of young Little white egrets about one might think this fish was going to feed one of them, It seems the Little white Egret is a cuckoo from what I saw at the heronry. not only do the Cattle egrets build the nests but it seems they sit on the cuckoo's eggs

this is a large white heron chick so all three of the White egrets are nesting in this area,

I saw one or two chicks foraging around on the ground on my way through the fruit tree grove so this was a sure indication that the trees of the heronry will be very active .

I have not been to this part before this is the roof of the pump house that pumps water for the banana island plantation its about 20 ft down to the Nile River and it pumps about 8ft up to the plantation water level this tree in the Nile has about 50 nests most with chicks as I clambered down to the entrance of the pump house I was about 6ft away from some of the nests on the top of the tree. I could almost touch the Cattle egrets.

I was standing where the dried grass is, there is a sheer 20 ft drop down to the river and where the roots of the fever tree are.

next two photos are of another tree full of nests the base shot is to show how much bird shit there is the place looked like we had a snow storm. strange thing was there is no smell. too hot everything dries quickly here its like 40c on a cool day. even the sheep can stand this heat as long as they have shade,

This is to my rear and everything is white hardly tell these are scrub bushes

Like my hair do

Mines better then hers

You all shut up the kids are trying to sleep

Hey you up there shuddup or this guy thinks we are a noisy bunch

here I am standing in the middle of 4 trees with nests

will come back in a few weeks to see how the young are

I quite enjoyed today even though I had to make a real effort to get out of my air conditioned flat.

2 comments:

Wonderful photos, Tony! I love seeing the chicks. You really got some great shots! You asked about what I feed the hummingbirds. YOu can buy a boxed or bottled mixture or make your own. If you make your own it is just sugar water(1 to 4 ratio). I usually buy a boxed mix that you add to water. Some has color and some doesn't. I add a drop of red food coloring because they are attracted to red flowers.

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